Pelit Magazine Goty 2017 (Finland) staff and reader picks

[Budi]

It's never too late to give recognition to great games!

Pelit Magazine is one of the oldest gaming magazines in the world still published. It started in 1992 as a computer gaming magazine, but after the release of Playstation they included console gaming too. It's a notable achievement by Zelda to get the first spot, usually in best games of all time votings Nintendo or console games overall haven't done so hot. Instead of games like Super Mario 3, Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger people pick games like Deus Ex, original XCOM, Planescape Torment and most recently Witcher. The PC roots are still somewhat showing, just like the preference on western games. As we can also see from the heavy Blizzard representation in the most played games. The cover picture is for early access game Naval Action / Naval Action Legends.

The competition for reader pick was extremely close between the top three, they all fit in between 889-896 votes.

Reader picks:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn
3. Divinity Original Sin 2
4. Assassin's Creed Origins
5. Super Mario Odyssey
6. Cuphead
7. Nier: Automata
8. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds
9. South Park: Fractured But Whole
10. Prey

This will include the regular staff but also votes by their assistants. Everyone got to nominate five games and then the votes were counted. Many of the games ended up in a tie so it gets bit muddy. Here's a "Top 3".

Staff picks:

1. Prey
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Divinity Original Sin 2
Cuphead
Persona 5
3. Nex Machina
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Hollow Knight
Horizon: Zero Dawn

Most played games of 2017:

1. Overwatch
2. Playrunknown's Battlegrounds
3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
4. Witcher 3
5. Hearthstone
6. Horizon Zero Dawn
7. Fallout 4
8. Persona 5
9. Rocket League
10. World of Warcraft

 

[Kolx]

Prey getting the goty is surprising but the game is great and underrated so not going to complain.

 

[Budi]

Prey getting the goty is surprising but the game is great and underrated so not going to complain.

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They do love their Immersive sims. And I can't blame them, really happy to see those getting praise even though I haven't played Prey myself yet. All entries to Dishonored have been very popular among the staff too.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

Good to see Nex Machina getting some love.

 

[Mórríoghain]

Mmm Prey, oikien hyvaa.

 

[Wat]

I used to subscribe to Pelit back in the day, from about -92 onwards. I haven't read them in a good while but it always was a very high quality publication, I wonder if anything similar even exists in English.

In addition to generally high quality game reviews, I remember them doing very thorough retrospectives and overviews of particular genres or important game series, grassroots reporting from niches of the hobby like hardcore simulator fans and their meetups, etc.
I think a lot of the quality comes from them knowing the limits of an individual writer, and being willing to use lots of external writers, so they often have very deep expertise and access available for a particular review or article that permanent staff couldn't possibly have - individuals who would never solely do games writing, but are willing to contribute occasionally. For instance, I was recently looking up the resume of one of the best known professionals in the Finnish VR game development scene and noticed that he has been a Pelit contributor for the last 13 years. One of the better-known Pelit columnists back in the day was on an academic career and in politics, but I'm pretty sure he has written something in Pelit even after he got his doctorate and got elected to the parliament 15 years ago.

 

[Deleted member 21858]

Prey is soooo average. Game starts out okay, but the side missions going back and forth and the enemies that lack variety are a huge problem of the gameplay and narrative. Not a bad game, just... very mediocre imo.

 

[Suw4rbox]

So glad to see HZD in the lists.

 

[Madjoki]

Nice to see Prey win. Seriously underrated game.

 

[Budi]

I used to subscribe to Pelit back in the day, from about -92 onwards. I haven't read them in a good while but it always was a very high quality publication, I wonder if anything similar even exists in English.

In addition to generally high quality game reviews, I remember them doing very thorough retrospectives and overviews of particular genres or important game series, grassroots reporting from niches of the hobby like hardcore simulator fans and their meetups, etc.
I think a lot of the quality comes from them knowing the limits of an individual writer, and being willing to use lots of external writers, so they often have very deep expertise and access available for a particular review or article that permanent staff couldn't possibly have - individuals who would never solely do games writing, but are willing to contribute occasionally. For instance, I was recently looking up the resume of one of the best known professionals in the Finnish VR game development scene and noticed that he has been a Pelit contributor for the last 13 years. One of the better-known Pelit columnists back in the day was on an academic career and in politics, but I'm pretty sure he has written something in Pelit even after he got his doctorate and got elected to the parliament 15 years ago.

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Yup, I've been on and off subscriber or buying separate issues since the early 90's too. Some of the oldest guard are still there. Though the editor in Chief quite recently retired from the magazine, after she led it for 25 years. My only complaint would be with Nnirvi's obsession with Souls and Bloodborne, it's getting bit boring and predictable to bring those up in every turn. =P They also have couple of people in their staff who have written books about games, most notably Juho Kuorikoski who wrote about history of adventure games, history of Finnish games and history of XCOM. He also worked on the harrowing game Lydia, which is now translated into Finnish and ported to mobile by Alko. As a f2p game for educational purposes about a child living in alcoholic household. I liked it quite a lot myself.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Prey is a better game than BotW, no doubt about that from me. Not sure if it's better than Horizon. Yakuza 0 gets ignored as usual :(

 

[Deleted member 8196]

1. Prey

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Good guys!

 

[omf]

Not surprising considering their love for Ultima Underworld and that whole lineage. Great choice.

Their niche PC game coverage was pretty amazing back in the day. Hex-based wargames, retrospectives and X-COM clones in the dark ages before Firaxis took over.

Prey is soooo average. Game starts out okay, but the side missions going back and forth and the enemies that lack variety are a huge problem of the gameplay and narrative. Not a bad game, just... very mediocre imo.

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Prey's design is so anachronistic and risky that average and mediocre are weird ways of putting it. There are no other devs making these types of games, so there's really no substitute even if some aspects fall flat. Not that you're wrong about the backtracking and variety, although I see both of those in a more positive light being a fan of systems-driven immersive sims. The game certainly has more variety than something like Bioshock.

 

[Budi]

Prey is a better game than BotW, no doubt about that from me. Not sure if it's better than Horizon. Yakuza 0 gets ignored as usual :(

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If it's any consolation, Yakuza 0 got score of 92 in their review! Though personally I'm bit wary with this specific reviewer as he seems to be a hire to fill a certain niche. Not that it would disqualify his opinion and review, quite the contrary. He probably is a great person to review the game with his experience and knowledge about the series. Just that my personal tastes and preferences don't probably align with him considering his other reviews too.

 

[Mister X]

Finally DOS2 is mentioned.

3. Divinity Original Sin 2

Most underrated game of last year. If crpg's would be more popular it would probably be GOTY beating Zelda.

 

[Lux]

Great picks and nice variety of good games from different genres. I'm surprised about the Prey though, I guess I'll have to play it.

 

[KillerMan91]

Oh. This brings memories. Pelit was my main source of gaming information as a kid and teen. Great magazine. Still buy one from time to time.

 

[Budi]

Great picks and nice variety of good games from different genres. I'm surprised about the Prey though, I guess I'll have to play it.

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Yeah same here, there's been a lot of praise for the game here at Era too. Also a good friend of mine said it would be his Goty too, if just the end game was better. He had some issues that made him drop the game just before the ending, I think it had something do with being required to run back and forth on the old areas or something. The game has also been for 50% discount already, there's not many excuses to not pick it up!